The Marshall County Commissioners will send a recommendation to the county council for funding to support the Metronet project.

St. Joseph Valley Metronet will be laying down a fiber-optic network infrastructure from St. Joseph County to Plymouth with the cost being split between the county and the City of Plymouth. St. Joseph County, South Bend, the City of Plymouth and Marshall County are paying for the conduit for the project while other entities are paying for the telecommunications cable.

The project is expected to enhance the connectivity between businesses and residents with broadband capabilities.

The cost of the Metronet project is $1,150,000. $900,000 has not yet been funded for this project and the engineers behind the project asked the commissioners to put forth $500,000. Other resources would then be found for the $400,000 shortfall.

Marshall County Commissioners Kevin Overmyer, Jack Roose and Deb Griewank all expressed their support for the project and noted that this may not be a money maker, but the infrastructure will be in Marshall County for business and industry and that will only help the economic future of Marshall County. They stated that the real savings of this will not be felt for a few years down the road.

A motion was made and approved to recommend the funding of $500,000 to contribute to the project. Commissioner Overmyer stated that he knows a person who will put up the rest of the cost of the project, but did not state who that person was.

It will now be up to the council members to approve the funding. The council will meet on Tuesday, Dec. 17 at 9 a.m. ET in the Commissioners Meeting Room in the Marshall County Building.